Racial Abilities
 
    * Arcane Torrent (Blood Elf) global cooldown removed.  
 
 
Death Knight
 
    * Death Knight spells that cost runes will now display the rune cooldowns on the spell buttons.  
 
 
Mage
 
    * Arcane Blast effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, and now increases damage by 15/30/45% instead of reducing cast time.
    * Arcane Impact renamed Spell Impact and now affects Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Cone of Cold, and Ice Lance.
    * Arcane Potency now applies when Presence of Mind is active, talent prerequisite changed to Presence of Mind.
    * Conjured mana gems no longer disappear from your backpack after being logged out for more than 15 minutes. Higher ranks of Conjure Mana Gem will recharge an existing mana gem to maximum charges.
    * Empowered Arcane Missiles renamed Arcane Empowerment and no longer increases mana cost. It now also increases damage caused by Arcane Blast.
    * Improved Blink now also reduces mana cost by 25/50%.
    * Improved Mana Shield has been renamed to Arcane Shielding and now also increases resistances granged by Mage Armor by 25/50%.
    * Remove Lesser Curse has been renamed to Remove Curse.  
 
 
Paladin
 
    * Consecration now scales with attack power and spell power.
    * Divine Protection now reduces all damage taken by 50% and increases time between attacks by 100%.
    * Exorcism mana cost reduced and now scales with attack power and spell power.
    * Eye for an Eye now reflects 10/20% damage from all critical hits.
    * Fanaticism now increases chance to critically hit by 5/10/15/20/25%.
    * Forbearance duration increased to 3 minutes.
    * Improved Blessing of Might increased to 10/20/30/40/50%.
    * Judgement has been replaced with 3 new spells; Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice. All Judgement spells are considered ranged attacks for purposes of how they hit and how they critically hit. All cause damage based on attack power and spell power.  
 
            - Judgement of Light now heals based on the Paladin’s attack power and spell power, the effect can not trigger more than once ever 4 seconds.
            - Judgement of Justice will no longer prevent Fear effects, but will only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).
            - Judgement of Wisdom now restores mana based on the Paladin’s attack power and spell power, the effect can not trigger more than once every 4 seconds.
 
    * Precision has been removed.
    * Pursuit of Justice reduced to 2 ranks for 8/15% movement increase and 1/2% less chance to be hit by spells.
    * Righteous Defense no longer costs mana and the global cooldown has been removed.
    * Sacred Duty now also reduces the cooldown of Divine Protection.
    * All Seals have been reduced to 1 rank and now cost 14% of base mana. The duration has been increased to 2 minutes and are no longer consumed when a Judgement spell is cast. The effects can be triggered from all weapon based special abilities.  
 
            - Seal of Blood now increases Judgement damabe by 45% of weapon damage.
            - Seal of Command now increases Judgement damage by 30% of weapon damage, 60% on stunned targets.
            - Seal of the Crusader has been removed. The effects of Judgement of the Crusader have been folded into all relevant abilities.
            - Seal of Righteousness deals damage based on weapons peed plus an amount based on attack power and spell power, increases Judgement damage by 25%.
            - Seal of Vengeance damage over time effect duration increased to 18 seconds and now applies its effect on every swing, causes damage based on attack power and spell power, and increases Judgement damage by 10% per stack of the damage over time effect.
 
    * Summon Warhorse and Summon Charger mana cost removed and no longer causes a global cooldown.
    * Vindication reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20% attribute reduction.
    * Silence (Shadow) global cooldown removed.  
 
 
Rogue
 
    * Energy regeneration should now be smoother.  
 
 
Warlock
 
    * Avoidance (Felguard): Now reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks by an additional 80% and is automatically learned for the Succubus, Imp, Voidwalker, and Felhunter at level 10.
    * Bane now reduces the cast time of your Haunt spell.
    * Consume Shadows (Voidwalker): Duration reduced to 6 seconds, and effect increased 66%. Now also greatly increases all nearby allies’ stealth detection while channeled.
    * Demonic Sacrifice: Succubus effect reduced to 10% increased shadow damage, down from 15%. Imp effect reduced to 10% increased fire damage, down from 15%. Felguard effect now increases Fire and Shadow damage, instead of just Shadow.
    * Doomguard: Health increased 20%, mana increased 24%.
    * Emberstorm now reduces the cast time of your incinerate by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 seconds.
    * Fel Armor - Now increases your spell damage equal to 30% of your total Spirit, but no longer increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%.
    * Felguard: Health increased by 10%.
    * Felhunter: Paranoia and Tainted Blood have been replaced with Fel Intelligence and Shadow Bite.
    * Fel Intelligence (Felhunter): Increases total Intellect and Spirit of party and raid members by 3%. Lasts until cancelled.
    * Infernal: Cooldown reduced to 15 minutes, down from 1 hour. Duration reduced to 1 minute, down from 5 minutes+. Health increased by 30%, damage increased by 60%, and armor increased by 30%.
    * Imp: Health increased by 20% , Armor increased 16%, mana regeneration increased 200%.
    * Master Demonologist (Demonology) - Most effects have been altered.
 
            - Master Demonologist – Felguard (Demonology) - Now increases all damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and reduces all damage done to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.
            - Master Demonologist – Imp (Demonology) - Now increases Fire damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Fire spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
            - Master Demonologist – Succubus (Demonology) - Now increases Shadow damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Shadow spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
            - Master Demonologist (Demonology) - Most effects have been altered.
 
    * Nether Protection has been reworked. It now has a 10/20/30% chance when you’re hit with a spell to reduce all damage by that spell school by 60% for 10 seconds.
    * New Talent: Improved Felhunter (Affliction): Your Felhunter gains mana equal to 50/100% of the damage done by its Shadow Bite ability, and increases the effect of your Felhunter’s Fel Intelligence by 1/2%.
    * Rain of Fire (Doomguard): A bug has been fixed which caused each tick of Rain of Fire to consume its mana cost.
    * Shadow Bite (Felhunter): Deals Shadow damage plus an additional 5% Shadow damage over time effect on the target. 6 second cooldown.
    * Soulstone now generates a log entry indicating who casted and received a soulstone.
    * Spell Lock (Felhunter) global cooldown removed.
    * Succubus: Health increased by 20%, armor increased 22%.
    * Summon Dreadsteed/Felsteed: Mana cost removed, global cooldown removed.
    * Voidwalker: Health increased by 20%, Damage increased by 16%. The amount of attack power the Voidwalker gains from its master’s spell damage has been increased by 45%.  
 
 
PvP
 
    * Medallion of the Horde and Insignia of the Alliance are now available for purchase on PvP vendors. For the purposes of testing these currently cost only gold to buy.  
 
 
Professions
Leatherworking
 
    * Drums now cause a Tinnitus effect, preventing affected targets from receiving beneficial effects from other drums for two minutes.
 
 
Mining
 
    * Smelt Elementium must be relearned by players who still wish to know the spell by visiting a trainer in Blackwing Lair.  
 
 
Quests
 
    * Alliance characters on the “Check in With Bizie” quest in Borean Tundra can now ask Kara Thricestar for a flying machine ride out to Bizie Wrenchshanker.
    * The “Escape from Winterfin Retreat” quest is now named “Escape from the Winterfin Caverns”. The escort is shorter and no longer requires a pre-requisite quest to get a key.
    * There is now a new murloc questgiver named Glrglrglr within the Winterfin Caverns. This questgiver needs you to ge the key to his cage so that he can be set free. This is not an escort quest.
    * Fewer cannonballs are now required for the Alliance quest “Danger! Explosives!”.
    * Petrov’s Cluster Bombs no longer cause caster procs during the Alliance quest “Break the Blockade”.
    * The Alliance quest, “Break the Blockade” no longer caps out at revered Valiance Expedition faction.
    * During the Alliance quest “Hah…You’re Not So Big Now!”, Crafty’s Ultra-Advanced Proto-Typical Shortening Blaster no longer has a chance to transform the character into a magnataur. Instead it has a chance to transform the character into the likeness of Crafty Wobblesprocket.
    * In Dragonblight, the “Ley Line” questline was reworked so that players are led into and must first complete the quests at the Ruby Dragonshrine before they will be given an audience with Queen Alexstrasza.
    * The quest character Kor’ghan (Finding the Antidote) was moved to just outside the Cleft of Shadow’s poison vendor.  
 
 
User Interface
 
    * New Calendar feature: Players will be able to access the new Calendar feature by clicking on the new icon located in the top right corner of their mini map. The calendar will track in game events, allow raid scheduling, and more.
    * New Vanity Pet and Mount changes: Players will now be able to access their non-combat pets and mounts by clicking on the pets tab in the Character Info panel. These pets and mounts will be now learnable much like spells or abilities. Once a vanity pet or mount is learned, the icon will disappear from within a player’s inventory and reappear in the appropriate tab under the pet tab under Character Info. Say goodbye to your vanity pets and mounts taking up bag and bank slots!
    * Error messages should play less frequently
    * Tradeskills can now be linked by shift-clicking the tradeskill icon
    * Quests can be shared with party members at any distance
    * Quests can be shared with party members by linking the quest into party chat
    * Quests can be shared in raids but not battlegrounds
    * A 5 minute timer will appear over the player’s unit frame showing the countdown until your PvP flag is cleared  
 
 
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff
Hunters / Warlock Pet Management in WotLK
There are 2 additional slots in the stable. Integrating hunter / warlock pet management into the new mount and companion UI has certainly come up already. Let's give the new UI a whirl and see if it works and then we can consider if it makes sense to integrate the stable or anything else into it. (Source)
 
Lake Wintergrasp
There will be a lot of tuning and balancing of the zone done in the coming months. One thing we are looking to do though to help with population imbalances is impose certain benefits for the side with less players in the zone. For instance, since supplies will be necessary to unlock certain vehicles, the side with the population handicap may see a decrease in requirements. We may also offer increasingly more supply benefits for a faction if they are suffering from consecutive losses in Lake Wintergrasp. The goal is to even the playing field regardless of faction population balances across all realms.
 
We plan to give Lake Wintergrasp a definitive play time where the event may last somewhere around 45 minutes. The event would not start again for a set amount of time after the battle is won. We will tune these times as testing further develops. The plan, additionally, is to provide certain incentives for visiting this zone between battles.  (Source)
 
Hunter
Pets should be able to hold aggro, especially tanking pets with the right spec. Class dps in general is something we are still evaluating, because honestly it's a lot of wasted work if we haven't finalized the abilities yet. Once we have a feel for how much dps a hunter can do, and how much threat you generate, we'll adjust pets accordingly. (Source)
 
Druid
In the next data push, you will find Omen of Clarity has been changed a bit. The 10 second cooldown has been removed, the procs per minute has been raised from 2 to 3.5, and melee abilities no longer trigger it. Spell interaction with Omen of Clarity remains relatively unchanged, with its hidden chance to trigger off spells reduced by half (and rolling the dice about 2x as often).
 
What this means is that more auto-attacks landing on the target will increase the benefit from Omen of Clarity. Haste, increased hit chance, and expertise will all make Omen of Clarity better.
 
We are aware of the concerns with reaching the hit rating cap, and will make sure Druids can pick up Rogue items to wear without exceeding that cap. This means Rogues will likely socket for hit, while Druids socket for Strength or Agility.
 
Before LK goes live, we will do extensive testing on how much damage classes do, and will increase or decrease their power as appropriate to meet our targets. Cat raid DPS suffered relative to other melee in BC for lack of an Combat Potency equivalent talent (OOC should now be roughly equal), for lack of a scaling finishing move (Savage Roar answers that), for lack of benefitting from Windfury Totem, and for lack of weapon procs (+35 agility != Mongoose). All of those lacks have been addressed. In addition, a change has been made to make the agility rebalance less severe (as I posted in another thread).
 
In PvP, we are adding many tools to the Feral Druid arsenal, including the redesigned Maim, Infected Wounds, King of the Jungle, and Berserk. We have also made some improvements to the "range bug". Attacks that require you to be behind a target will no longer be able to be parried, nor able to be dodged by a player. Our movement engine will now smoothly interpolate positions of moving units, preventing the "Out of range/You must be behind your target/Out of range/You must be behind your target/Out of range/You must be behind your target..." sequence from occuring any more. In addition, being able to apply a snare makes the Feral Druid able to slow down their target and lessen the severity of the "range bug". Yes, there are still issues with the model, especially when switching into and out of cat form, but many of the issues are being dealt with. (Source)
 
------------------------
 
To help deal with this issue, in the next data push, Druids should find their melee critical strike chance is about 5% higher.
 
The conversion of agility to critical strike chance remains the same 40:1 at level 70, but the base amount for 0 agility has been increased by 5%. (Source)
 
 
Clarification on Fair Gameplay in Arenas
Quote from: Slorkuz (Source)
There have been a number of questions recently on what exactly falls into the category of Win Trading in Arena matches, and therefore what is and is not considered acceptable, so we would like to provide some clarification on what is considered fair gameplay in Arena matches.
 
The act of Win Trading may be described as the carrying out of premeditated plans to rise in arena rating by means of determining the outcome of a match prior or during its taking place. Win trading goes against the spirit of World of Warcraft and devalues the enjoyment of the game for all players who earn their victories by competing in a fair environment.
 
Win Trading includes players tampering with, or otherwise abusing the queue system as well as colluding to enter into an arena match with a specific opposing team. In the case of arena collusion, we consider any situation where the standard queue possibilities are bypassed through an abuse of mechanics to be a violation of policy. This includes, but is not limited to, the act of tampering with one’s team roster with exploitive intentions as well as setting up a situation that bypasses the randomness of our queue system where a team has a specific and predetermined opponent and repeatedly faces that team. Queuing against a known and affiliated opponent gives a competitive advantage over players who are entering the queue at random. We have measures in place to take action against any account found to be using these practices to advance their characters.
 
These described actions all fall in line with our fair use clause in the Terms of Use, which specifically states:
 
Nonetheless, certain acts go beyond what is "fair" and are considered serious violations of these Terms of Use. Those acts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
      1. Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;
 
With that being said we are aware that players will often face the same team multiple times in succession due to a lack of similarly rated teams in the queue. Naturally this is not in violation, nor should players worry if ever they happen upon a situation such as this, but we will invoke action against any team when the team in question creates an agreement to exchange matches or tamper with the queuing system. Regardless of the content of these games, this presents a conflict of interest that we wish to deter in order to keep our arena system competitive.
 
In our continued efforts to support fair gameplay we have taken steps to ensure fair and enjoyable competition in the Arena by taking action on players who are found to be involved in Win Trading. Actions for violations may include not only penalties to the account but also confiscation of any gear that has been won if deemed necessary. Our Support staff will continue to enforce fair gameplay in Arena matches and all aspects of the game and will continue to address any new concerns to ensure that the playing field is kept fair.

Racial Abilities
 
    * Arcane Torrent (Blood Elf) global cooldown removed.  
    * Silence (Shadow) global cooldown removed.  

Professions
Leatherworking
 
    * Drums now cause a Tinnitus effect, preventing affected targets from receiving beneficial effects from other drums for two minutes.

User Interface
 
    * New Calendar feature: Players will be able to access the new Calendar feature by clicking on the new icon located in the top right corner of their mini map. The calendar will track in game events, allow raid scheduling, and more.
* Quests can be shared with party members at any distance

Lake Wintergrasp
There will be a lot of tuning and balancing of the zone done in the coming months. One thing we are looking to do though to help with population imbalances is impose certain benefits for the side with less players in the zone. For instance, since supplies will be necessary to unlock certain vehicles, the side with the population handicap may see a decrease in requirements. We may also offer increasingly more supply benefits for a faction if they are suffering from consecutive losses in Lake Wintergrasp. The goal is to even the playing field regardless of faction population balances across all realms.
 
We plan to give Lake Wintergrasp a definitive play time where the event may last somewhere around 45 minutes. The event would not start again for a set amount of time after the battle is won. We will tune these times as testing further develops. The plan, additionally, is to provide certain incentives for visiting this zone between battles.  (Source)

Before LK goes live, we will do extensive testing on how much damage classes do, and will increase or decrease their power as appropriate to meet our targets. Cat raid DPS suffered relative to other melee in BC for lack of an Combat Potency equivalent talent (OOC should now be roughly equal), for lack of a scaling finishing move (Savage Roar answers that), for lack of benefitting from Windfury Totem, and for lack of weapon procs (+35 agility != Mongoose). All of those lacks have been addressed. In addition, a change has been made to make the agility rebalance less severe (as I posted in another thread).
 
In PvP, we are adding many tools to the Feral Druid arsenal, including the redesigned Maim, Infected Wounds, King of the Jungle, and Berserk. We have also made some improvements to the "range bug". Attacks that require you to be behind a target will no longer be able to be parried, nor able to be dodged by a player. Our movement engine will now smoothly interpolate positions of moving units, preventing the "Out of range/You must be behind your target/Out of range/You must be behind your target/Out of range/You must be behind your target..." sequence from occuring any more. In addition, being able to apply a snare makes the Feral Druid able to slow down their target and lessen the severity of the "range bug". Yes, there are still issues with the model, especially when switching into and out of cat form, but many of the issues are being dealt with. (Source)

Priest
 
    * Silence (Shadow) global cooldown removed.